Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center

New Jersey is set to clamp down on a North Jersey hospital that insurance companies claim is billing them as much as 3,000 percent more than its own outpatient surgery centers charge for the same treatment.

Part of the plan by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to contain rising auto insurance rates targets the business practices of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, bought in December by the owners of three surgery centers in Bergen and Essex counties.

Since then, the new owners have been referring auto accident victims from their same-day surgery center to Meadowlands to take advantage of a fee loophole, according to insurance executives and confirmed by the Department of Banking and Insurance. The state limits what same-day surgery centers may charge, but it does not regulate what hospitals may charge for most outpatient care. And at Meadowlands, that difference can be substantial insurers and state officials say.

New Jersey is set to clamp down on a North Jersey hospital that insurance companies claim is billing them as much as 3,000 percent more than its own outpatient surgery centers charge for the same treatment.

Part of the plan by Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to contain rising auto insurance rates targets the business practices of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, bought in December by the owners of three surgery centers in Bergen and Essex counties.

Since then, the new owners have been referring auto accident victims from their same-day surgery center to Meadowlands to take advantage of a fee loophole, according to insurance executives and confirmed by the Department of Banking and Insurance. The state limits what same-day surgery centers may charge, but it does not regulate what hospitals may charge for most outpatient care. And at Meadowlands, that difference can be substantial insurers and state officials say.

Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center skipped pre-admission tests for several patients undergoing anesthesia, failed to provide pediatric outpatient services for low-income families, and did not ensure enough nurses were on duty, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

The state inspected the Secaucus hospital last month after an employee union complained about how the facility has been run and "threats to patient and worker safety" since a for-profit company bought it last year.

Within the span of 19 months, Hudson County residents have witnessed the sale of one of the local hospitals – Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus – and the pending sales of two others, Hoboken University Medical Center and Christ Hospital in Jersey City. In all three instances, the hospitals switched, or will switch, from nonprofit ownership to become for-profit entities.

These sales come just a few years after the closures of Greenville Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Jersey City, and three years after Bayonne Medical Center also changed hands from nonprofit to for-profit ownership.

LibertyHealth signed a contract Friday to sell Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus to a Newark-based health care investment company that will maintain the 230-bed facility as an acute care hospital, officials said.

The sale to MHA LLC, which must be approved by the state, will result in another for-profit hospital in the state.

Meadowlands, which opened 34 years ago, was sold "to ensure its long-term future as an acute-care hospital," said Mark Rabson, director of corporate affairs for LibertyHealth, which also operates Jersey City Medical Center.